More than 98,000 people have signed a petition demanding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stay away from the 25th anniversary memorial at Ground Zero, and the families who lost loved ones on September 11 say they plan to turn their backs if he shows up.
Maureen Santora, 81, lost her son Christopher on September 11, 2001. He was 23 years old, a firefighter with Engine 54, and he died in the South Tower. A quarter century later, his mother wants one thing from the mayor of New York City: silence.
"I just hope that he doesn't say a single word because most of us will be very upset," Santora told the Daily Caller.
She is not alone. Families of the 2,977 people killed in the attacks are organizing a coordinated effort to protest Mamdani's presence at the ceremony. Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace died on September 11, organized the petition and plans to carry it to City Hall on September 8. Queens Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola will join him for a press conference the same day.
The petition's growth tells its own story. When the New York Post first reported on the campaign in late July, the petition had collected roughly 42,000 signatures, with an estimated 3,000 to 7,500 from actual 9/11 victim family members. By early September, that number had more than doubled to over 98,000.
Galante has been direct about his position. He called Mamdani's potential presence "deeply hurtful and inappropriate, like an unwelcome guest at a deeply personal ceremony." Asked what he would do if the mayor attended anyway, Galante did not hesitate: "I would definitely ignore him."
Angie Pesce, whose brother Danny was killed in the North Tower, said she believes Mamdani will attend regardless. She sees silence as her form of protest, saying he'll show up "to be spiteful."
Jeanette Puccio-Pick, whose father died on the 94th floor of the South Tower, said her focus stays on her father, not the mayor. That sentiment, grief first, politics second, runs through many of the families' statements. But the grief does not blunt their anger at the man who now leads the city their loved ones died in.
Mamdani has said he intends to attend the memorial and honor the dead. He has also issued executive orders on remembrance, though the specific language of those orders has not been made public in detail. Councilwoman Ariola dismissed those orders as hollow, pointing to two specific decisions that she said undermined any claim of sincerity.
First, Mamdani retained Ramzi Kassem as his chief counsel. The New York Post reported that Kassem previously defended an al-Qaeda terrorist. Second, Ariola cited Mamdani's refusal to disavow figures such as Hasan Piker. Ariola framed the situation bluntly: "This is a mayor who has endorsed candidates and has been endorsed by individuals who openly said that America deserved 9/11, so I completely understand why families of those who lost loved ones would not want him there."
The New York Post also reported that Mamdani campaigned with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and that Mamdani defended al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in 2015 social media posts, blaming America for turning him into a terrorist. Al-Awlaki interacted with three of the September 11 hijackers.
That pattern of associations is what drives the families' opposition. It is not simply that they dislike Mamdani's politics. It is that the man who wants to stand at Ground Zero on the 25th anniversary has a documented record of proximity to people who minimized, defended, or were connected to the very attacks that killed their relatives.
Mamdani's tenure has created controversy well beyond the memorial dispute. His administration has faced scrutiny over a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes that critics have linked to his inflammatory rhetoric.
John McDevitt, the retired president of the Port Authority police association, sent letters on August 14 urging Mamdani to stay away from the ceremony. The Port Authority police lost officers on September 11 and have maintained a visible presence in memorial events for two decades. McDevitt's letters added institutional weight to what had been a grassroots family campaign.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive who lost his nephew in the South Tower, went further. He called on all attendees to turn their backs on Mamdani if the mayor insists on attending. "He's not welcome there because he has yet to say anything in opposition to the global intifada," Blakeman told Newsmax.
Blakeman suggested the protest could be both respectful and pointed: "I think it's completely appropriate if family members ask him not to come, but if he does come I think there's a respectful and peaceful way to protest that and I would suggest that people turn their back on the mayor."
Former Governor George Pataki, who led New York through the aftermath of the attacks, has also expressed "grave concerns" about Mamdani's past comments regarding the memorial attendance.
Mamdani's record of questionable priorities has drawn criticism on multiple fronts. He publicly mourned an accused killer's death at Rikers Island while the victim's family said he never mentioned their son, a contrast that crystallized the complaint families now level at him over the September 11 memorial.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum keeps the annual ceremony free of politics. Attending officials give no remarks, a policy designed to keep the focus on the victims and their families. That means Mamdani would not deliver a speech or address the crowd even if he attended.
But for the families, his physical presence is the provocation. The ceremony reads the names of all 2,977 people killed in the attacks, including 658 employees of Cantor Fitzgerald. It is an intimate ritual of remembrance, not a public event where politicians earn credit for showing up. The families see Mamdani's attendance as an intrusion into that space, particularly given his associations.
Not every family member agrees. Elizabeth Miller, whose father died in the attacks and who is affiliated with September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, defended Mamdani's place at the ceremony in remarks to CBS New York. The group condemned what it called Islamophobic attacks on the mayor.
That framing, casting opposition to Mamdani as bigotry rather than accountability, has not gained traction with the bulk of the families organizing against him. Their objections are specific: his associations with terror-linked figures, his refusal to condemn extremist rhetoric, and his retention of a chief counsel with a record that offends the memory of the dead.
Meanwhile, Mamdani's governance record continues to create fresh opposition. His administration recently dodged a City Council hearing on a controversial tax rollout, adding to a pattern of evasion that has frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Galante and Ariola's planned press conference at City Hall on September 8 will put the petition directly in front of the Mamdani administration days before the anniversary. Whether the mayor's office responds, or simply ignores 98,000 signatures, will signal how Mamdani intends to handle the ceremony itself.
The mayor has given no public indication that he plans to stay away. He has said he intends to show up and honor the dead. But the families who buried the dead do not want his honor. They want his absence.
His broader record of misplaced priorities has not helped his case. Mamdani left for a weeklong upstate vacation earlier this year while policy failures mounted, a decision that reinforced the perception that he is disconnected from the concerns of ordinary New Yorkers.
Maureen Santora is 81 years old. She has spent nearly half her life mourning a son who ran into the South Tower and never came out. She is not asking for much, just that the man who leads her city not make the 25th anniversary of her son's death about himself.
When 98,000 people and the families of the dead ask a politician to stay home, and he insists on showing up anyway, that tells you everything about whose feelings he prioritizes, and it is not the people who lost the most.
